Rapoo V500 Pro keyboard review: Good but not the best gaming keyboard

Rapoo v500 Pro is a compact gaming keyboard.

The Rapoo V500 Pro mechanical keyboard is the latest entry-level mechanical keyboard, which is available in India on Flipkart for Rs 2,799. Is this is a good mechanical keyboard? Let's find out.

Rating:

3.0/5

PROS

Compact design

Affordable price

CONS

No palm rest

No RGB lighting

Design

The most outstanding thing about the Rapoo V500 Pro is the design. The keyboard has a plastic base with a thin metal sheet (aluminum) on the top. The keyboard has 104 keys in total including a dedicated numeric keypad. We can easily call this a full-sized mechanical keypad but it does not have any programmable keys.The keypad has a compact form factor, where the company has not wasted any space on the keypad. As this is a mechanical keypad, it has a certain heft, which makes this keyboard immobile while gaming, which is a good element for a gaming keyboard.

The keyboard has a 1.2-meter long plastic cable with a USB type-A port on the other end of the cable, which lacks any sort of gold plating. Having a gold plating on the USB port will protect the SUB port from corrosion.

Accessories and Features

As this is a mechanical keyboard it comes with a nifty tool. The tool can be used to take out or replace individual keys on the keyboard with ease.

The keyboard uses a Blue Switch mechanism, just like most of the mechanical keypads at this price tag. This means, one can easily customize the keypad using third-party Blue switch keys.The keyboard also has a spill-resistant design, where it can easily withstand coffee or other liquid spillage. This has to be serious because, if the keyboard gets damaged due to any kind of liquid, then it is not covered under the warranty. So careful on any liquid that you keep near the Rapoo V500 Pro.

Performance

I was happy with the key travel and the key response from the keyboard. I used this keyboard for more than a wek as my daily driver. I played games and I used the keyboard to write content as well. In terms of functionality, the keyboard never failed to impress me But, I felt that the keyboard is missing some key features.

Backlit keyboard

The Rapoo V500 Pro is a backlit keypad, which offers a decent level of customization. The colors of the keys cannot be changed, but, one can easily increase or decrease the brightness of the keypad. Here are the functions that one can do. Fn + Up or down arrow to increase or decrease brightnessFn + Esc to toggle between Backlight off, Breathing backlight and Static BacklightFn+ side war arrow keys to increase or decrease the intensity of the backlight

Shortcomings

t has a complete set of functional keys from F1 to F12. However, it misses out on the shortcut logos on the same. The manual does mention the shortcuts (most of it is in Chinese and Korean) but I felt it as a void. When I was playing a game I had to look at the manual at least for the first few days to increase or decrease the volume, which is a bummer.

I feel that a mechanical keypad should have palm rest and this keyboard lacks it. This lack of palm-rest is something which the company should have offered because when you are either playing a game or doing some work for more than an hour or so, your hands really hurt.

Verdict

The Rapoo V500 Pro is a good entry-level keyboard under Rs 3000 price tag. I was impressed with the key response and the compact form factor. However, it misses out on a lot of features, which are offered by the competitors. If you are looking for a budget gaming and mechanical keyboard, then the Rapoo V500 Pro does the job well. However, it still needs some minor tweaks, hoping that rapoo will fix these issues in the next model.

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